Journey Starts - Istanbul, Turkey - Aug 2010

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Day 01

29th August 2010 - Departing the UK - Istanbul

3am wakeup at Laetitia's in Wimbledon. Mad rush to get everything crammed into backpacks before jumping in a cab straight to Gatwick for a 6am flight to Istanbul.

Unfortunately I lost my wallet the day before leaving, so I spent a lot of time during the cab journey to the airport and waiting at the airport; on the phone, cancelling debit and credit cards, and trying to organise new cards to be sent to mums address for her to FedEx to somewhere on our travels, e.g. the hostel in Beijing!

Great feeling to get on the first plane. No work for 5 months!


Landed in Istanbul - very hot - temperature in the mid to late 30's. Got chatting to the man on the plane sitting next to me, who advised us to catch the bus from directly outside the airport, into town, which we did.

It took 1 hour to reach the ferry port, from where we caught a passenger ferry across to the south of the river. As we went to get off the boat, the zip on Crystals backpack broke, and 5 months worth of clothes, etc. went everywhere!! By the time we had picked everything up and re-packed Crystals bag, the ferry had departed again for the north side of the river - we missed our stop!! At the next stop, we caught a cab to our hostel - The Paris Hostel. Very very old hostel, but very clean and in a great location. We had small balcony with a view of the sea, which was nice.

After resting, we went out for the day and walked the city, looking at the various sights. Very busy old city, with lots of very scenic mosques. Got invited into a locals place for tea, but left 5 minutes later (after drinking the tea) when we realised he wanted to sell us a rug!

Great atmosphere, and loads to see, as Ramadan is in full swing. An extremely scenic city, although constant pestering to buy this and that, or “come look at my shop”.

Walked by the sea front, where families flocked after sundown (Ramadan requires no eating or drinking before sundown), to have big picnics and bbq's. Went for a nice meal back in town, then a beer in a place called the “cozy pub” before heading back to the hostel.

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